Off Page App Store Optimisation (ASO)

App Store Optimisation, also known as ASO, is relatively young and common best practices are still being ironed out. We have written a blog on some of the important On-Page or App Store Listing optimisations, but what about the “Off-Page” factors?

Similar to SEO, there are certain aspects outside of your listing that will improve your app ranking. These may not have as direct an impact as the main elements such as app description, title or use of keywords, but it is essential to having a complete optimisation strategy.

App Store Backlinks

Building backlinks for app store links is a great way of raising your app store URL’s authority:

As you can see from the above image, the iOS app store listing has gained a trust flow of 14 and a Citation flow of 12 due to the backlinks currently pointing to that listing. With apps becoming even more prominent in regular desktop and mobile Google searches, this is a great way of indicating that app is reputable and relevant.

Important: You must make sure that the page sending a backlink is relevant to your app as, with any backlinking, irrelevant backlinks may harm your listing.

App Landing Page on Site

A landing page is one of your most important assets. As apps move into desktop and mobile searches, it’s important for your app to be a prominent feature on your site. Your landing page should include links to your listings, as well as clear descriptions of your app functions.

Having your link on your webpage will also increase web links to your store, another off-page ranking factor.

Downloads and Uninstalls

Having a high-quality app listing is great, especially if your app is also of high quality.

Your app usage metrics are another major factor that Amazon, Apple and Android take into account when judging the quality of an app and where they should be placed in the app stores.

An app with a high download rate indicates high popularity and will be preferred by app stores.

How to achieve this:

–Have an app that is useful, fun or high quality

–Social campaigns

–Paid promotion (app, social, ppc)

–Referrals

App stores like apps with a healthy stream of daily downloads and they are more likely to feature these on the app home page, which in turn will attract more downloads.

However, if people are downloading your app and a large percentage are uninstalling, this shows that your app is either poor quality or not as described in the app listing. A high uninstall rate will lead to your app being penalised, and at the end of the day no app store wants bad apps at the top.

Other factors:

–Complex on boarding process

–Unexpected costs

–New competitors

–App size too large (over 100mb)

Cross Channel Promotion

If you’re an app based company it’s natural that you’ll promote it across all channels, but if an app is only one of your products, are you doing the same?